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Congressional leaders are set to meet Pres. Obama tonight to nail down a budget. While some...

  • Wednesday, April 6, 2011, 6:15 PM ET
    Congressional leaders are set to meet Pres. Obama tonight to nail down a budget. While some worry about a potential government shutdown and others welcome it, this argument is about lowering the deficit by a measly 0.4% of GDP - "spitting distance" in the coming U.S. fiscal meltdown.
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This news story has 24 comments:

  •  
    whats so bad about a govt shutdown?
    6 Apr 2011, 06:20 PM Reply Like
  •  
    Yup, we do not need a whole bunch of those departments any way. They have been growing like weeds. Cut them down and you will have a fresh field to grow something useful!
    6 Apr 2011, 07:01 PM Reply Like
  •  
    This is nothing but a game of chicken over chicken feed.
    6 Apr 2011, 06:27 PM Reply Like
  •  
    yes...a measly 4 billion or so....they are fighting over....when they should be cutting 1.6 TRILLION...what a joke but I am not laughing
    6 Apr 2011, 06:35 PM Reply Like
  •  
    This kind of nonsense is what we get from the Bozos we send to represent us. They could probably just cut their perks and get this done.
    6 Apr 2011, 06:38 PM Reply Like
  •  
    Gotta respond to a few excerpts of Geithner's letter to Congressional leaders (my comments in parenthesis)

    "In addition, defaulting on legal obligations of the United States would lead to sharply higher interest rates and borrowing costs, (as our current interest rates are artificially held low for the benefit of risk taking highly leveraged banks and financial institutions) declining home values (already have declined substantially and are continuing as Fed and Treasury conspire to devalue the dollar and thus reduce individual Americans buying power) and reduced retirement savings (actually, American “savers”, pensioners, and investors in fixed income securities could benefit from higher interest rates) for Americans. Default would cause a financial crisis potentially more severe than the crisis from which we are only now starting to recover".

    "Selling the Nation’s gold, for example, would undercut confidence in the United States both here and abroad". (Why? Isn’t that one reason the Nation holds onto gold and other “liquid” assets? Perhaps investors would have greater confidence in the US commitment to service and honor its debt without going further into debt.)

    More . . . bit.ly/hepxN7
    6 Apr 2011, 08:11 PM Reply Like
  •  
    What is this? The tired set of the Merv Griffin Show with the cheesy fake, foam walls with copper glitter sprayed on?

    He's a damn game show host.

    Why didn't Obama also invite Zsa Zsa and Charo? Kenny Rogers. Some of that 70's variety show bullshit. A Muppet. Some of the losers from the Hollywood Squares. Paul Lynde and Cloris Leachman. Aged yellow leisure suits and giant brown sunglasses, flared slacks and prostate cancer. This is the Jimmy Carter time machine. All in, save Iranian hostages. That'll be coming too. Book it.

    That about sums up this era of pretentious government cornbread.
    6 Apr 2011, 06:50 PM Reply Like
  •  
    David Walker, the former comptroller of the currency of the US, said that the dispute over a few billion dollars is like a dispute over a bar tab on the Titanic! Look out below!
    6 Apr 2011, 06:57 PM Reply Like
  •  
    The Bloomberg article attached to the above news release by the Boston College professor is bang on and is what I have been hammering on for a while. Seeing it on Bloomberg makes it even more alarming.

    We are in deep trouble.
    6 Apr 2011, 07:16 PM Reply Like
  •  
    Let's call the bluff of Obama....shut the government until he compromises to REAL cuts....
    6 Apr 2011, 07:36 PM Reply Like
  •  
    HAH. Do you think the Republicans have the guts to make real cuts or do what it takes on the revenue side? Even the budget floated by Ryan falls far short of what is needed. It still results in a TRILLION dollar deficit plus it includes tax cuts for the rich and increases in the military budget.

    Utter insanity. What is needed is an across the board 25% budget cut for every department in the government AND a 0.5 trillion tax increase. That is the ONLY way this thing will get balanced.
    6 Apr 2011, 08:32 PM Reply Like
  •  
    Governments aren't corporations, they don't have to show profits...and we need to be realistic...it is impossible to get the budget balanced with cuts and raising of taxes, because the world isn't 1950s....the world is too competitive, we can't raise taxes of the magnitude we need to balance the budget...

    What we need is a deficit of less than 2% of GDP...that means that at current GDP we need a deficit of less than 300B...
    6 Apr 2011, 08:44 PM Reply Like
  •  
    Yes we don't need to balance the budget. A deficit 2% of GDP would be a huge step. Will that happen? Not under any set of moderate changes like those you see in the news.

    The plan of a 25% cut plus a tax increase of 0.5 T does not balance the budget. It still leaves a deficit in the future because the interest on the existing debt will be increasing, and so much of the government spending is tied to entitlements.

    I don't think people truly realize how bed the current situation is and how terrible a job our elected officials are doing.
    6 Apr 2011, 08:56 PM Reply Like
  •  
    As Everett Dirkson once said, "A billion here and a billion there - Pretty soon it adds up". Neither party is willing to even consider the billions we waste on the military. I'm not talking about our brave young men, I'm talking about the thousands of brass that congregate in the Pentagon.
    6 Apr 2011, 07:56 PM Reply Like
  •  
    The following list says it all

    www.zerohedge.com/arti...
    6 Apr 2011, 08:35 PM Reply Like
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    No it doesn't say it all!

    "#8 The average American now spends approximately 23 percent of his or her income on food and gas."

    Take a serious look at your own expenditures. Does this even come close?
    6 Apr 2011, 10:48 PM Reply Like
  •  
    I suggest a government shutdown should happen every year for a week as a matter of policy. The services, whose absence did not cause much disruption, could be thus targeted for permanent elimination.

    I think this great idea was first proposed in a Dilbert cartoon:

    dilbert.com/fast/2000-.../
    6 Apr 2011, 08:44 PM Reply Like
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    Cut them. Cut them all. Cut them all to zero. Then you and the rest will see that Medicare and Social Security, the military and interest on the existing debt will break us all by themselves.
    7 Apr 2011, 12:04 AM Reply Like
  •  
    Maybe FDR should have STFU then, huh?
    7 Apr 2011, 01:10 AM Reply Like
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    What I love are the forecasters and predictors of the future. Those who would propose to slash spending but not invest, who would support cutting the very programs (e.g. planned parenthood) that would lead to costly unintended consequences. The ones who only concentrate on the liability side of the balance sheet (essentially forgetting the "balance" in the statement)....yeah I love those guys, they're obviously the rich job creators of this country (wink) Look, cuts must happen...that is not up for debate. Should it happen this year, when the economy is slowly crawling out of a deep, deep ditch? Is a problem that essentially started in earnest 30 years ago, and then bubbled up and burst over the last 10 going to be resolved in 1? Raise your hand if you believe so - lets talk off line, got a bridge to sell ya. Of course...if the Teapublicans would like to press their luck like Gov. Walker - why not? I don't work for the government, lol, and I rather they were sent back home in 2012 anyway. A shutdown will go a long way towards buying that ticket.
    6 Apr 2011, 09:26 PM Reply Like
  •  
    Government spending is not investing. If the government was investing they should show us a return and if it is really doing well then let's do more "investing." But they cannot show a return outside of TARP so they use "investing" as a sheild for extra spending. Furthermore if government investing was so great we would not have the deficit we are now facing because they would have a return.

    The problem can be resolved in 1 year by high inflation, capital flight and a plunge in the dollar and that is where we are headed.

    All the other political BS is noise at this point.
    7 Apr 2011, 09:56 AM Reply Like
  •  
    Government shutdown when they couldn't summon the guts or integrity to shut a couple of unethical banks, insurers, and car makers down in 2008?
    7 Apr 2011, 01:22 AM Reply Like
  •  
    We send politician to do their jobs. These guys are not doing their jobs. Do you know what parents do to their kids when kids do not listen? Timeout!
    7 Apr 2011, 05:57 AM Reply Like
  •  
    Why are the republicans concerned about spending now. They weren't concerned about it while they were in office and drove us to the poor house!
    7 Apr 2011, 12:29 PM Reply Like
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